The 'slave labour' Banksy sale should be enough to provoke another Banksy

The missing mural will resurface in Britain again. But only fleetingly

‘Look, we want to see [Banksy's work] on display in Britain,' Tony Baxter said cheerily. ‘If it's bought, fine; but if not it goes straight back on the plane and will never be seen here again.' Photograph: Matthew Chattle/Alamy
Matthew Chattle / Alamy/Alamy

• So, what is happening to the missing Banksy? If you remember, the subversive slave labour mural showed a small boy hunched over an ancient sewing machine turning out bunting for the Queen's diamond jubilee. It disappeared from a wall on the side of a Poundland supermarket in Wood Green, north London, a few months ago and subsequently turned up in an auction house in Florida. Next month it will be back, but probably for one night only. It is, according to a company called Sincura, up for auction in the UK – but whoever bids will be doing so in the dark, because its (legal) anonymous American owners have agreed to sell it more or less for the undisclosed price they seem to have paid for it. Sincura, curiously, describes itself as VIP concierge specialists and purveyors of lifestyle and tickets, and its director Tony Baxter (irony piles on irony: he's a former banker) says that the picture was prised out of the wall legally, was legally sold and is now legally owned. "Look, we want to see it on display in Britain," he said cheerily. "And we got off our arses and did something about it. If it's bought, fine; but if not it goes straight back on the plane and will never be seen here again." Sounds like something Banksy should be doing a mural about. What's it worth to Tottenham? The local trades council is rightly up in arms: perhaps they'll have a whip-round.

• Well here's a possible job for honest strivers looking to relocate in search of work: head of news at the Department for Work and Pensions, as advertised prominently in yesterday's paper – thank you for the moolah, Iain Duncan Smith, but surely you don't want pesky Guardian readers applying? It pays rather better than £53 a week, fortunately, at £82,000 plus benefits, but it is tough and demanding; exceptional influencing skills needed, and – gosh – credibility too. You'll have to make sure the department's voice is heard when discussions take place. Nothing said about massaging statistics or magnifying the numbers finding work, so that's all right.

• And a new name too – hooray! – has been dreamed up in another thicket of government. From now onwards the Identity and Passport Service, changed in 2006 from the UK Passport Service, will drop the identity card bit and be known simply as Her Majesty's Passport Office instead. They don't want any further association with that nasty old Blairite ID card scheme, since it was finally scrapped in 2010. No external agencies were consulted in the rebranding, either, so it's all been terribly cost-effective, and now we'll have, in the words of Mark Harper, the immigration minister, "a gold-plated passport service". To mix a metaphor, it's a watershed moment. What a difference a name makes – but, er, just one thing: isn't the Queen the only person in the country who doesn't need a passport?

• Speaking of design: did anyone notice the deft placement of the Bafta head logo on the transparent lectern from which Graham Norton compèred the television awards on Sunday night? It made him look as though he was wearing a gold codpiece … which he possibly was – probably de rigeur on these occasions – but, surely, only under the evening suit.

• Here's a funny thing. No sooner does the education secretary Michael Gove start banging on about Mr Men being used to illustrate secondary school history lessons (no, I don't understand why, either) than a strangely familiar little blue figure materialises on the internet. He has a grey quiff, seems to have his tongue sticking out, and appears with an accompanying story written in the style of Roger Hargreaves. "Mr Gove was happy. Why not? He was in charge. And he knew better than everyone else. So all was right with the world." It looks like someone's been messing about in the art room and not concentrating on their work. I expect they think it's funny. Well, they'd better own up. We know who you are, and you can jolly well come and see me afterwards. You're letting the school down, you're letting Mr Gove down and, worst of all, you're letting yourself down. It's just bonkeroony.